"Go back!" I demand, turning on Cormac as we accelerate away from the warehouse, each inch between us and Astrid a physical pain in my chest. "We can't leave her there!"
"We have to. She'll be safer if we lead them away from her."
"Lead who away?" My words come out more snarl than speech, the wolf rising closer to the surface with each passing second.
Cormac takes a sharp turn, putting more distance between us and the warehouse, between me and my mate. Behind us, the terrified man has curled into himself, rocking slightly, muttering under his breath in elvin.
"He's part of it," Cormac says, nodding toward our passenger. "The magic trafficking ring we've been tracking for years. We've never gotten anyone out alive before."
"I don’t care!" I growl, reaching for the non-existent door handle again.
"You should. They'll hunt him. Track him." Cormac's eyes meet mine briefly before returning to the road, a flash of understanding and regret in their depths. "If he had gone with her, they would find her too."
"We take her with us. We tell her everything." It's not a suggestion but a demand.
"We can't. If we take her to the ranch, we expose the entire network. We can't do that."
"Then I'll go back," I argue. "I'll protect her."
"She's running like I told her. I saw her go for the trees. You can't go back. Do you know what they would do with you, if they caught you?" The regret in his voice only fuels my fury. "You don't understand what we're dealing with."
"Fucking explain it!" The words explode from me, a volcanic eruption of rage and fear and desperation.
"I will."
"Now." A command, not a request.
"No." Simple. Final. Resolute.
I turn in the seat, seething with a fury that could burn cities to ash. I'm seeing red, my vision narrowing to pinpoints of rage, the wolf so close to the surface I can feel my bones beginning to crack beneath my skin. "If anything happens to her, I'll kill you."
"I know," he mutters under his breath, the whispered words a confession and a promise. "And I am sorry."
The car speeds through the night, putting more distance between me and the woman who carries my soul with every passing second. Every fiber of my being screams to go back, to protect, to claim. But for now, I am trapped—by circumstance, by necessity, by the bitter truth that Cormac's decision, while infuriating, might be right.
But that won't save him if she comes to harm. Nothing will.
CHAPTER 25
Things Can Always Get Worse
* * *
Fenrir Thorsson
The silence in the car is broken only by our passenger's ragged breathing. His scent—terror mixed with the distinctive copper-sweetness of Elvin blood—fills the confined space, sharp enough that I can taste it on my tongue. My wolf paces restlessly beneath my skin, furious at being pulled away from Astrid. Each mile between us stretches like physical pain.
Cormac drives with single-minded focus, his knuckles white on the steering wheel, taking turns too quickly.
"We should have brought her with us," I say for the third time since leaving the warehouse.
Cormac's eyes never leave the road. "You know we couldn't."
My hand goes to the door again, the metal groaning beneath my grip. The electrical sensation that connects me to Astrid pulses like a second heartbeat, urging me to return to her.
"She could help us," I insist. "She deserves to know what she's up against."
"And she will," Cormac says, his tone softening slightly. "But not now. Not like this."
